


Tattoos

by saltzi



Category: Fallout (Video Games), Fallout: New Vegas
Genre: Fluff, M/M, Out of Character, Tattoos, arcade is out of character and im sorry, is that even a thing, lots of generic tattoos, tattoo exploration, the lack of tags say no
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-05
Updated: 2019-06-05
Packaged: 2020-04-08 01:04:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 580
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19096579
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/saltzi/pseuds/saltzi
Summary: Anybody with a lot or even a few tattoos ends up regretting at least one. The Courier has a lot of tattoos. He regrets quite a few of them. Arcade discovers one and is now on  mission to find them all.





	Tattoos

The Courier has a lot of tattoos, ranging from wild flowers winding up his arms and legs, tribal tattoos on his chest, back and shoulders, to small religious symbols on his fingers. All very obviously homemade, but all still very pretty nonetheless - at least to Arcade.

Someone once said that the tattoos look like they were drawn by a child, but the Courier never seemed to get upset by this. He just smiled, and later told Arcade that one of them actually was done by a child; a small and very poorly drawn mole rat on his left shoulder.

As much as Arcade likes the tattoos though, he's noticed, during a very thorough inspection of all the tattoos the Courier had, that there were a few very faded ones that showed through in gaps between the newer tattoos, and even fewer that weren't covered at all.

One of the most notable ones was a name on his right wrist, and Arcade had immediately assumed the name belonged to a family member because surely the Courier wouldn't have an ex-lovers name tattooed on him, right?  
But when asked, the Courier explained that it was indeed the name of someone who he had been involved with for a while when he was a teenager. And that he very deeply regretted letting her write her name on him.

Arcade just snorted and moved on the next one.

This one was on his chest, over his heart, and it wasn't covered. It was another name followed by a little smiley face. The Courier explained that this one was from his mother. It's rare that the Courier ever mentions his mother due to her already being dead, but it's clear that the asian-hispanic man loved her very much; and now Arcade feels bad for bringing it up. The Courier just says he couldn't have known.

Another uncovered one is a simple chain of words written in Korean around his left ankle. Arcade can't read it, and the Courier refuses to tell him what it means, but he says it's from his grandmother.

Arcade spends the next twenty minutes looking for more hidden little markings and finds three (a small knife, an ace of spades, and a crescent moon) that were all from the same person- yet another ex.  
As he continued to discover more of them though (and there were so many more than he had first thought), it became quickly obvious that the ones the Courier was trying to hide were from ex-lovers, and the ones that were showing proudly were from family members or old friends.

Arcade couldn't help but ask though why the Courier had let so many people he obviously regretted being with leave their marks on him.  
The courier just told him he wasn't in a good place for most of his younger years. Arcade didn't press for a more detailed answer.

Eventually Arcade doesn't find any more, and gives the Courier a break. The poor man looked and sounded close to falling asleep for most of Arcades tattoo scavenger hunt.

Arcade lays down beside his boyfriend (he still thinks that words sounds too juvenile for what they have, but what they have definitely goes deeper than a friends with benefits thing) and before allowing himself to rest, eyes the few blank spaces on the Couriers chest, and briefly wonders if the Courier would let him leave his own mark.

Probably not, but it's a little nice to think about.

**Author's Note:**

> Knowing Arcade, he'll probably write something in Latin if the Courier ever did allow him to give him a tattoo.
> 
> Btw I know this sucks, pls be gentle.  
> This is literally the first fanfic I've ever written and I wrote at fucking 4 am and only edited it once, so it is a whole ass dumpster fire. But, I still had fun writing this, so I guess that counts for something, right?


End file.
